Honestly, Valentine ’s day might have started as a day to celebrate love but nowadays it has become another day to force people to shop compulsively for things that they don’t need or they don’t want to buy in order to express their love. Most men know that they will be in trouble if they don’t buy an expensive present for their women. So, they buy an expensive present, not as an expression of their love, but as a way to avoid trouble. Like in Monopoly, they are buying their “get out of jail” cards.
Do not take me wrong, I am a romantic person, a dreamy girl wants the happily ever after. I believe in love. I love and I am loved dearly but I hate to see how Valentine’s day has become another commercial festivity to sell flowers, chocolates, jewelery, cards with silly messages and stuffed animals. Not just that, but I see my single friends, those who by choice or force are alone and I feel sorry for them on Valentine’s day. Not because they are single, oh no! I feel sorry because all the ones who are in couples make them feel as if they were missing something just because they get a silly little card and a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day.
There need not even be the slightest emotion attached, nor thought behind the gift. We are told, in ads on radio and television, how a simple phone call and valid credit card is all it takes to send flowers or candy to your "special someone" and it is guaranteed to arrive in time for Valentines Day. Presumably, the recipient can feel emotionally "validated" by getting a gift delivered in full view of their co-workers.
I find it somewhat amusing that just one week after one of the best days of the year for most men, Super Bowl Sunday, comes one of the most dreaded -- Valentines Day. For the record, I am not a misogynist. My beef with Valentines Day is not the gifts themselves, but the high expectation and complete lack of spontaneity involved in this manufactured "holiday."
Why has love become so monetized in the first place? Why is saying, "I love you" somehow less valuable than sending a dozen roses that will be dead within a week? Really you're partner should be treating you extremely nicely everyday. Buying you flowers once in a while, taking you out for dinner every now and then. NOT just because it's 'Valentines Day.'
Why I Hate Valentine’s Day
~ If I say that I hate Valentine’s Day, most people automatically will think that I am either an old angry spinster or -for those who know me and know that I am neither old or a spinster- I am just having a very rough period in my love life. Neither of them is true, but most people do not understand how someone who is happy in a relationship cannot like and look forward to Valentine’s Day.
~ I never know what to buy as a Valentine’s present. Having just come out of Christmas it is difficult to find another original present for Romeo.
~ It has been horrible every time I have been single. All my friends in a relationship had something special planned for February 14th and they felt sorry for me if I said I was staying in watching TV or reading a book. It didn’t bother me at all staying in like any other day, but I felt humiliated at my friends feeling sorry for me!
~ When I have been in a relationship the presents have rarely been up to romantic standards. I am a very romantic person. I expect Prince charming to bring the moon down for me. Now when Charming appears with a Hallmark card and a box of chocolates bought at the Gas station – with the price still attached- when he knows I am on a diet… that is disheartening. The worst part is having to pretend to be pleasantly surprised and thankful that he remembered Valentine’s day.
~ There are so many beautiful poems in classic literature that it is annoying to read the silly messages written in most commercial cards. Why can Romeo not take 20 minutes of his time and copy for you one of your favorite love poems; even better, why can he not write you a few words of his own! The only Valentine’s card I have ever kept is one a man made for me himself.
~ All the couples you know look so in love on Valentine’s day that it sucks! You know he is double timing your friend, but you don’t say anything because she never told him that she was a stripper before she met him, and anyway it is not your business. But all the displays of false perfect love just want to make you throw up. You know that later that night they will be arguing again about something trivial.
~ I hate to hear the competitiveness between girls on Valentine’s Day. Someone boasting about their enormous bouquet of flowers, while the other one claims that her man really loves her because he never takes her out but tonight they are going to the best restaurant in the city. Doesn’t she realize that it is only a Valentine’s Day marketing game, he never takes her out except on Valentine’s Day, and she is delighted. Poor girl!
~ Valentine’s Day, like weddings, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations bully us into losing weight. Women are desperate to lose all the extra grams that they gained during the Christmas holidays in order to wear their red Valentine’s lingerie. Why wait for Valentine’s, can’t we just lose weight because of ourselves, because we want to look our best ALL the time?
~ If you are not in a relationship and you go out with a girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, the odds are that anyone who sees you will think you are a lesbian.
~ Most men are not very romantic and you will end up disappointed but you’ll boast about your present next day at work anyway.
In my ideal world I would like to be romanced every single day of the year. I would like to feel loved and needed every day, not just one silly day in the calendar. Why not celebrate love every time we can? I don’t need a special day or a special occasion to tell my boy that I love him that I am head over heels about him. I don’t need someone to remind me in the calendar that it is time to send him a loving card or a message. He doesn’t need a day marked in the calendar to make me feel special.
Valentine’s day might be a positive celebration for the shop keepers, restaurants, jewelers and other businesses, but it doesn’t do much for your relationship.
XOXO,
Donna
